Heroin overdose prompts increased police patrols around local motel

BLUEFIELD,Va. — Deputies will be stepping up their patrols along Route 460 near Bluefield, Va., after a man overdosed on heroin in a motel’s parking lot, Tazewell County’s sheriff said Thursday.

Sheriff Brian Hieatt with the Tazewell County Sheriff’s Office said an arrest was made Wednesday evening at the Comfort Inn parking lot along Route 460 after Tazewell County 911 received a call about man gasping for breath inside a vehicle. The call was received at approximately 6:45 p.m. and the Bluefield Va. Rescue Squad responded along with the sheriff’s office.

“He turned out to have heroin,” Hieatt said. “There was supposed to be somebody in the car with him, but they ran off. They (EMS) had to get his breathing back before we could arrest him and take him to jail.”

Jason Wright, 33, of the Springville area in Tazewell County was arrested after deputies found that he had injected himself with heroin, Hieatt said. Wright was charged with public intoxication. He was released early Thursday morning.

The investigation was continuing and deputies were still searching for a second person who fled from the scene. Hieatt said the sheriff’s office was working with the Tazewell County Narcotics Task Force.

Hieatt said patrols along that part of Route 460 would be increasing.

“I want people to know that we’re going to be patrolling there,” he stated. “We will be stepping up patrols in the area because we don’t want a business’s parking lot to become a safe haven for drug use.”

Manager Charles Craddock of the Comfort Inn said Thursday that it was the first time he had been aware of a problem at the parking lot.

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